Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski joined business and community leaders to honor the winners of the second annual Mayor’s Skyline Challenge Awards.
“We have the opportunity to build an economic identity for our city and to lead the nation in energy efficient buildings and infrastructure” Mayor Biskupski said. “Many of the new economy businesses we want to attract have infused environmental stewardship into their corporate identities. We need to build and upgrade our current structures to meet their needs.”
Launched in May 2014, the multi-year Challenge encourages building owners across Salt Lake City to proactively improve the energy performance of their buildings and enhance their environmental and economic impact. Today’s event, held at Salt Lake City’s Gallivan Center, also included Joan Card, Senior Policy Advisor for EPA Region 8 in Denver.
“As EPA looks to implement and develop the voluntary, practical tools that will help our partners reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency, buildings are opportunities,” she said.
The Mayor’s Skyline Challenge is part of Salt Lake City’s Project Skyline initiative, an effort to increase energy efficiency of large buildings across Salt Lake City to help achieve the City’s energy, climate, and air quality goals. The initiative is also supported by the City Energy Project, a national initiative of 10 major American cities to cut energy waste in large buildings and make American cities healthier and more prosperous.
Winners of the 2016 Mayor’s Skyline Challenge Awards and their categories are:
170 South Main: Industry Leader
Intermountain Healthcare: Community Leadership
Rocky Mountain Power: Energy Benchmarking Champion
Wingcrest: Most Improved Energy Performance
The building management team of 170 South Main in downtown Salt Lake City has implemented a suite of diverse and effective energy management practices that have earned the building the award of Industry Leader. In 2015, 170 South Main installed CO2 sensors to minimize air intake that requires heating or cooling, installed motion sensors for lighting, and revised HVAC settings for unoccupied spaces in the building. In addition to energy efficiency projects implemented in the building itself, building management also created an energy efficiency competition among tenants on each of the building’s floors, and presented at a Project Skyline workshop about their collaborative energy efficiency strategies with their tenants. 170 South Main has also maintained an Energy Star certification and LEED certification since 2011.
Since the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge launched in 2014, Intermountain Healthcare has been an active program participant not only by implementing energy efficiency best practices across its wide array of healthcare facilities and clinics, but by serving as a vocal advocate for energy efficiency throughout the community.The company’s internal energy management practices include commissioning throughout the lifecycle of all its buildings, energy efficiency design standards for all design and construction projects, as well as training for facilities staff on energy management best practices.
Rocky Mountain Power has been an official partnering organization with the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge since the program’s inception. In autumn 2013, Rocky Mountain Power was invited to partner with Salt Lake City on the U.S. Department of Energy’sData Accelerator program, an ambitious nationwide effort to provide automated energy data to building owners while maintaining the privacy of energy customers. Over a two-year process of stakeholder meetings and internal deliberation, Rocky Mountain Power moved forward with plans to provide this service to its customers; in fall 2015, the company unveiled its fully functioning, whole-building automated data service, calledResource Advisor. This accomplishment has been nationally recognized by the White House and the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as locally by Governor’s Office of Energy Development. .
The Wingcrest Building at 5245 Yeager Road in Salt Lake City completed several robust energy efficiency projects in 2015, resulting significant improvement of the 129,000 square foot office property. An HVAC control system was installed to monitor the boiling system, air handling units, VAV boxes, and roof exhaust fans. Wingcrest also optimized the combustion efficiency of the boiler, completed an LED retrofitting project to exterior and interior lighting systems, and added occupancy sensor switches to high-impact areas such as common rooms and offices.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 30 percent of the average commercial building’s energy use is wasted. Improving building energy efficiency can have a large impact on Salt Lake City’s total carbon and particulate pollution. The Mayor’s Skyline Challenge is one of many ongoing sustainability initiatives Mayor Biskupski is leading to improve air quality, respond to climate change, and to build and improve the local economy.
The third round of the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge will open in fall 2016.
To learn more about the Mayor’s Skyline Challenge please visit: http://www.slcgov.com/
